Johannesburg - The basic education department must stop wasting public resources to duck responsibility for the Limpopo textbook scandal, the teacher union Naptosa said on Monday.
"The department... [must] cease wasting public resources with statements, denials, and attempts to justify their own actions," National Professional Teachers' Organisation of SA (Naptosa) president Ezrah Ramasehla said in a statement.
"The statements, adverts, denials, court cases, verification reports, commissions, attempts at exoneration, and general obfuscation surrounding the textbook crisis have reached ludicrous levels."
He said a decision by the High Court in Pretoria on October 4 to grant a third court order compelling the national and Limpopo departments to deliver textbooks had resulted in a "spate" of media releases denying the situation was a crisis.
Ramasehla said politicians and officials had all denied their involvement in the delay in the delivery of textbooks.
"Those officials and or political leaders found to be responsible for the crisis should be called to account and the appropriate sanctions, demotions, and dismissals, where appropriate, should be effected speedily," he said.
"We believe the general public will not be satisfied with a 'collective responsibility' or a 'system failure' that in essence condones the actions of guilty parties."
High Court in Pretoria Judge Jody Kollapen granted the order as the department had failed to deliver all textbooks by specified deadlines and failed to devise a catch-up plan for children and teachers as set out in the previous court order.
He ordered the departments to complete all outstanding textbook deliveries for 2012 for Grades One, Two, Three, and 10 by October 12.
The basic education department said on Friday that all outstanding textbooks had been delivered to schools in Limpopo.